Preamps and Circular Polarization Switch.
Hey guys.
I just took a lighting strike the other day. Wipe out the big stick in the air. Also took out one preamp and possible a circular polarization switch on the sat antennas alone with both PCs that I had, a power supply, plus my network. The pair of KLM appear ok. So I am going to redo my tower layout. New coax(probably hard line), new preamps, new cp switch and new control cable to the preamps and CP switches. Rotor cables appear good, but will check to make sure.
I put this system together about 20 years ago. So I am starting out fresh trying to find the stuff. Is Lanwear amps still available? If not, what is the next best. Are there any shelf available CP switches. The ones I have were on the antennas when purchased. And they appear home built.
Any suggestions are appreciate.
Jim
Ke4kol
Number one on the list is a good tower ground bonded to the single point service entrance ground at the house. MIL-HDBK-419 addresses this very well. When this is followed, you will have very minimum problems, unless, you take a direct strike. This can be minimized with static dissipators. When was the last time you saw a FAA communications tower that took a hit with any damaged equipment??
73 Glenn WB4UIV
At 08:27 PM 6/28/2015, Jim Bennett wrote:
Hey guys.
I just took a lighting strike the other day. Wipe out the big stick in the air. Also took out one preamp and possible a circular polarization switch on the sat antennas alone with both PCs that I had, a power supply, plus my network. The pair of KLM appear ok. So I am going to redo my tower layout. New coax(probably hard line), new preamps, new cp switch and new control cable to the preamps and CP switches. Rotor cables appear good, but will check to make sure.
I put this system together about 20 years ago. So I am starting out fresh trying to find the stuff. Is Lanwear amps still available? If not, what is the next best. Are there any shelf available CP switches. The ones I have were on the antennas when purchased. And they appear home built.
Any suggestions are appreciate.
Jim
Ke4kol
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn Little ARRL Technical Specialist QCWA LM 28417 Amateur Callsign: WB4UIV wb4uiv@arrl.net AMSAT LM 2178 QTH: Goose Creek, SC USA (EM92xx) SBE ARRL TAPR "It is not the class of license that the Amateur holds but the class of the Amateur that holds the license" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I took a direct hit. It disintegrated my 2m/70cm vertical. It was 20 foot long. Now it is in 5 pieces in various length and the neighbor's lawn has many piece of the radome. The tower is grounded with three grounding rods that are connected to the service entry point on the garage. That saved 6 different radio from any damage. It took out a power supply that wasn't even connected to the antenna that took the hit. I have polyphaser lighting protection on all antennas. It has been up for 20 years and this is the first major damage.
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Glenn Little WB4UIV Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2015 10:10 PM To: Jim Bennett; 'Amsat' Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Preamps and Circular Polarization Switch.
Number one on the list is a good tower ground bonded to the single point service entrance ground at the house. MIL-HDBK-419 addresses this very well. When this is followed, you will have very minimum problems, unless, you take a direct strike. This can be minimized with static dissipators. When was the last time you saw a FAA communications tower that took a hit with any damaged equipment??
73 Glenn WB4UIV
At 08:27 PM 6/28/2015, Jim Bennett wrote:
Hey guys.
I just took a lighting strike the other day. Wipe out the big stick in the air. Also took out one preamp and possible a circular polarization switch on the sat antennas alone with both PCs that I had, a power supply, plus my network. The pair of KLM appear ok. So I am going to redo my tower
layout.
New coax(probably hard line), new preamps, new cp switch and new control cable to the preamps and CP switches. Rotor cables appear good, but will check to make sure.
I put this system together about 20 years ago. So I am starting out fresh trying to find the stuff. Is Lanwear amps still available? If not, what
is
the next best. Are there any shelf available CP switches. The ones I have were on the antennas when purchased. And they appear home built.
Any suggestions are appreciate.
Jim
Ke4kol
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn Little ARRL Technical Specialist QCWA LM 28417 Amateur Callsign: WB4UIV wb4uiv@arrl.net AMSAT LM 2178 QTH: Goose Creek, SC USA (EM92xx) SBE ARRL TAPR "It is not the class of license that the Amateur holds but the class of the Amateur that holds the license" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sounds like you have done your homework. I wish more would do the same. I did lightning damage mitigation in a previous job. I had some professionals tell me I did not know what I was doing. After the third direct hit to a commercial tower and the replacement of all strobes the tower took no more damage causing hits. Sometime later my boss directed me to return to the site and report on my findings. All of the recommendation, that I was told by the professionals that I did not know what I was talking about, were implemented. These included an aero spike, additional grounding and bonding of grounds to existing tower and structure.
If you were to add static dissipators to your tower, you might be able to dissipate the energy before it reached strike potential.
73 Glenn WB4UIV
At 08:53 PM 6/29/2015, J Bennett wrote:
I took a direct hit. It disintegrated my 2m/70cm vertical. It was 20 foot long. Now it is in 5 pieces in various length and the neighbor's lawn has many piece of the radome. The tower is grounded with three grounding rods that are connected to the service entry point on the garage. That saved 6 different radio from any damage. It took out a power supply that wasn't even connected to the antenna that took the hit. I have polyphaser lighting protection on all antennas. It has been up for 20 years and this is the first major damage.
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Glenn Little WB4UIV Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2015 10:10 PM To: Jim Bennett; 'Amsat' Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Preamps and Circular Polarization Switch.
Number one on the list is a good tower ground bonded to the single point service entrance ground at the house. MIL-HDBK-419 addresses this very well. When this is followed, you will have very minimum problems, unless, you take a direct strike. This can be minimized with static dissipators. When was the last time you saw a FAA communications tower that took a hit with any damaged equipment??
73 Glenn WB4UIV
At 08:27 PM 6/28/2015, Jim Bennett wrote:
Hey guys.
I just took a lighting strike the other day. Wipe out the big stick in the air. Also took out one preamp and possible a circular polarization switch on the sat antennas alone with both PCs that I had, a power supply, plus my network. The pair of KLM appear ok. So I am going to redo my tower
layout.
New coax(probably hard line), new preamps, new cp switch and new control cable to the preamps and CP switches. Rotor cables appear good, but will check to make sure.
I put this system together about 20 years ago. So I am starting out fresh trying to find the stuff. Is Lanwear amps still available? If not, what
is
the next best. Are there any shelf available CP switches. The ones I have were on the antennas when purchased. And they appear home built.
Any suggestions are appreciate.
Jim
Ke4kol
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Glenn Little ARRL Technical Specialist QCWA LM 28417 Amateur Callsign: WB4UIV wb4uiv@arrl.net AMSAT LM 2178 QTH: Goose Creek, SC USA (EM92xx) SBE ARRL TAPR "It is not the class of license that the Amateur holds but the class of the Amateur that holds the license"
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn Little ARRL Technical Specialist QCWA LM 28417 Amateur Callsign: WB4UIV wb4uiv@arrl.net AMSAT LM 2178 QTH: Goose Creek, SC USA (EM92xx) SBE ARRL TAPR "It is not the class of license that the Amateur holds but the class of the Amateur that holds the license" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you make your connection to your driven ground at the base of your tower, make all your ground wires are as straight and as short as possible. Lightning considers any 90 degree bends in the grounding wire (made to make the installation look neat) as a high impedance in the path to ground. Lightning may find a another way with less impedance that you do not want it to follow. In my 37 years with a utility company, I have found that the straighter and shorter the ground wire the better. I have seen a lot of very expensive equipment thrown into the trash can because of ground wires with lots of bends or because they were unnecessarily long.
Ray Hoad WA5QGD
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Glenn Little WB4UIV Sent: Monday, June 29, 2015 8:13 PM To: J Bennett; 'Jim Bennett'; 'Amsat' Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Preamps and Circular Polarization Switch.
Sounds like you have done your homework. I wish more would do the same. I did lightning damage mitigation in a previous job. I had some professionals tell me I did not know what I was doing. After the third direct hit to a commercial tower and the replacement of all strobes the tower took no more damage causing hits. Sometime later my boss directed me to return to the site and report on my findings. All of the recommendation, that I was told by the professionals that I did not know what I was talking about, were implemented. These included an aero spike, additional grounding and bonding of grounds to existing tower and structure.
If you were to add static dissipators to your tower, you might be able to dissipate the energy before it reached strike potential.
73 Glenn WB4UIV
At 08:53 PM 6/29/2015, J Bennett wrote:
I took a direct hit. It disintegrated my 2m/70cm vertical. It was 20 foot long. Now it is in 5 pieces in various length and the neighbor's lawn has many piece of the radome. The tower is grounded with three grounding rods that are connected to the service entry point on the garage. That saved 6 different radio from any damage. It took out a power supply that wasn't
even
connected to the antenna that took the hit. I have polyphaser lighting protection on all antennas. It has been up for 20 years and this is the first major damage.
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Glenn
Little
WB4UIV Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2015 10:10 PM To: Jim Bennett; 'Amsat' Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Preamps and Circular Polarization Switch.
Number one on the list is a good tower ground bonded to the single point service entrance ground at the house. MIL-HDBK-419 addresses this very well. When this is followed, you will have very minimum problems, unless, you
take
a direct strike. This can be minimized with static dissipators. When was the last time you saw a FAA communications tower that took a hit with any damaged equipment??
73 Glenn WB4UIV
At 08:27 PM 6/28/2015, Jim Bennett wrote:
Hey guys.
I just took a lighting strike the other day. Wipe out the big stick in
the
air. Also took out one preamp and possible a circular polarization
switch
on the sat antennas alone with both PCs that I had, a power supply, plus
my
network. The pair of KLM appear ok. So I am going to redo my tower
layout.
New coax(probably hard line), new preamps, new cp switch and new control cable to the preamps and CP switches. Rotor cables appear good, but will check to make sure.
I put this system together about 20 years ago. So I am starting out
fresh
trying to find the stuff. Is Lanwear amps still available? If not, what
is
the next best. Are there any shelf available CP switches. The ones I
have
were on the antennas when purchased. And they appear home built.
Any suggestions are appreciate.
Jim
Ke4kol
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
program!
Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Glenn Little ARRL Technical Specialist QCWA LM 28417 Amateur Callsign: WB4UIV wb4uiv@arrl.net AMSAT LM 2178 QTH: Goose Creek, SC USA (EM92xx) SBE ARRL TAPR "It is not the class of license that the Amateur holds but the class of the Amateur that holds the license"
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn Little ARRL Technical Specialist QCWA LM 28417 Amateur Callsign: WB4UIV wb4uiv@arrl.net AMSAT LM 2178 QTH: Goose Creek, SC USA (EM92xx) SBE ARRL TAPR "It is not the class of license that the Amateur holds but the class of the Amateur that holds the license" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (4)
-
Glenn Little WB4UIV -
J Bennett -
Jim Bennett -
Ray Hoad